Detergent oily agent adapted to be well adsorbed in fabrics and having detergency

ABSTRACT

A detergent oily agent for the treatment of cotton and other fabrics for utilization typically as mops, said agent consisting essentially of a mineral oil. This mineral oil is added with a first nonionic surface-active agent, a cationic surface-active agent and a second nonionic surface-active agent. The second nonionic surface-active agent, such as polyoxyethylene alkyl phenol ether, is designed to serve as an emulsifier of the mineral oil and the other surface-active agents in a neutral solution, e.g., water. The mineral oil so emulsified can be effectively and surely absorbed in fabrics and has an effective detergency.

United States Patent Ijiri et a1.

[4 1 June 6, 1972 DETERGENT OILY AGENT ADAPTED TO BE WELL ADSORBED IN FABRICS AND HAVING DETERGENCY Inventors: Yoshinobu Ijiri, Hiroshima; Yoshiaki Yano, Osaka; Hiroshi Yoshida, Hiroshima, all of Japan Hiroshima Kago Kabushiki Kaisha Minamikanon, Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshimaken, Japan Filed: June 30, 1970 Appl. No.: 51,377

Assignee:

Foreign Application Priority Data June 30, 1969 Japan ..44/51934 US. Cl ..252/88, 252/106, 252/351,

252/357 Int. Cl. ..C09k 3/22 Field ofSearch ..252/88, 357,351, 106

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,391,079 7/1968 Greenblatt ..252/88 X 3,175,949 3/1965 Siegal ..252/357 X 3,105,500 10/1963 Wilson ..252/88 X 3,200,036 8/1965 Greenblatt. ....252/88 X 3,311,659 3/1967 Birkelo ..252/357 X Primary Examiner-Robert F. Burnett Assistant ExaminerM. E. McCamish Attorney-Waters, Roditi, Schwartz & Nissen [5 ABSTRACT 2 Claims, No Drawings DETERGENT OILY AGENT ADAPTED TO BE WELL ADSORBED IN FABRICS AND HAVING DETERGENCY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a novel oily agent for cotton and other fabrics. More specifically, the invention relates to a new and better oily agent capable of imparting both adsorbency and detergency to such fabrics, thereby to make them fit for the manual cleaning of various articles and typically for household or office use as mops.

Heretofore, a variety of oily agents have been used in a variety of ways for the treatment of fabrics chosen according to their specific applications. Some have been simply sprayed on the fabrics, while in other instances the fabrics themselves have been immersed and stirred in oil solutions or in emulsified water solutions of oils. Yet all these prior oiling preparations have drawbacks that offset their advantages, if any, even though each of them has been applied to the fabrics by the way most suiting it.

When spraying method is adopted, for instance, although it is very simple, oils are mostly attached to their surfaces alone, besides being wasted in large quantities. On the other hand, when the fabric is immersed and stirred in an oil solution, the fabric absorbs much oils in a comparatively short time and ab sorption of said oil solution by one fabric is relatively favorable, but there are various disadvantages such that fabric's sur faces become too oily" and the fabric so treated with the oil solution containing mineral oils and the like cannot be successfully deodorized, and the process itself incurs much expenses.

Furthermore, when fabrics are immersed and stirred in emulsified water solutions of oils, the fabrics may absorb oils both efficiently and uniformly, but there is a positive drawback such that the fabrics need an acid pretreatment which causes processing trouble and impairment of cotton and other fabrics and the successful oil adsorption of the fabrics depends largely upon the skill regarding to dosages of acid, water and other additives.

Thus, oily agents capable of being put to use without bringing about any such drawbacks or inconveniences as mentioned above have long been searched for in the industry.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide novel oiling agents which can be adsorbed uniformly and wastelessly in cotton and other fabrics so that the fabrics so treated can render lasting services as mops and the like.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel oily agents that canbe readily adsorbed in the fabrics at a low temperature and in a comparatively short time, without need for any preor aftertreatments of the fabrics.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide novel oily agents which contain an excellent detergent surface-active ability so that the fabrics treated therewith have a longsustained self-cleansing quality.

Still another object of the invention is to provide novel oily agents each consisting essentially of a mineral oil containing a surface-active agent which becomes adsorbable when activated, and another surface-active agent capable of completely emulsifying the mineral oil in a neutral solution so that the mineral oil is adsorbed efficiently in the fabrics along with the other ingredients.

With these objects in view and the other objects hereinafter set forth, the invention is described in detail in the following.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION For the fulfillment of those objects of the invention, it is necessary that an oily agent containing both adsorbent and detergent substances be adsorbed successfully in the fabrics through a medium of water. However, as is well known, any detergent and any adsorbent act contradictorily to oils and moreover adsorbents in general are active only in acidic solutions, so that it is extremely difiicult to activate them to such a degree that oils are adsorbed efficiently in the fabrics in neutral water solutions.

In order to overcome the difficulties mentioned above the present inventor conducted a great many experiments in which cationic, nonionic and other surface-active agents having adsorbency were blended, in their various combinations and percentages, with a mineral oil such as machine oil, and further a nonionic surface-active agent and the like were added as an emulsifier of the mineral oil. Then, the degree, rate and overall state of adsorption of the mixture prepared as above in fabrics through a medium of water were observed.

The results of the above-mentioned experiments were as follows:

1. All the adsorbents used were activated in only acidic states, and did not show any adsorbency in neutral states thereof.

2. Oils had to be emulsified in water or neutral solutions prior to their adsorption in fabrics;

3. Poor and nonuniform adsorption of oils in fabrics were resulted unless the oils were emulsified perfectly in the form of fine droplets; and, consequently, the nonionic surface-active agent or the like used as an emulsifier had to be capable of attaining complete emulsification of the oils.

Further experiments based on the results mentioned above led to the discovery of an ideal fabric-oiling oily agent i.e., a mineral oil containing (a) an alkylol-amide nonionic surfaceactive agent and a quaternary-ammonium-salt cationic surface-active agent in the ratio ranging from about 5:1 to about 1:2 and (b) an adequate percentage of a nonionic surface-active agent such as polyoxyethylene alkyl phenol ether. The fabrics immersed and stirred in a water solution of the above oily agent took up enough quantities of the mineral oil and the other additives in a short time while the temperature of the solution was elevated but slightly.

The specific details of the oily agent of the present invention will be given in the following description on one example thereof, given here only by way of further clarification of the invention.

EXAMPLE Blended composition of an oily agent:

Mineral oil 180 parts Particular nonionic surface-active agent 1.5 parts Cationic surface-active agent 1 part Normal nonionic surface-active agent 2 parts 100 parts of a fabric was immersed in 1,000 parts of a 2 percent neutral water solution of the above oily agent or 100 parts of a fabric was immersed in L000 parts of water to which was then added 20 parts of the above oily agent. When the thus treated fabric was stirred from about 2 to about 5 minutes in the water solution heated up to about 45 C, the initial turbidity of the solution cleared to the point of almost perfect transparency. Neither sedimentation, flotation nor separation of the mineral oil was then observable to the naked eye, evidencing its successful adsorption in the fabric. Then, the fabric was removed from the solution, dehydrated and desiccated by use of apparatuses available conventionally for the purposes, and then its weight was measured. The percentage of the mineral oil adsorbed therein, obtained on the basis of a difference in its weight before and after the treatment, proved to be as high as approximately percent. Moreover, the nearly complete absence of organic matter from the remaining water proves the fact that the fabric took up almost the whole of the other ingredients of the oily agent, too.

To specify the ingredients of the above oily agent as used in the present example, C machine oil was used for the mineral oil; diethanol amide of the fatty acid of coconut oil for the particular nonionic surface-active agent; stearyl dimethylbenzil ammonium chloride for the cationic surface-active agent; and polyoxyethylene alkyl phenol ether for the normal nonionic surface-active agent.

ln reexamination of the above discussed process, the complete adsorption of the oily agent in the fabric in the water solution seems to have taken place due to the successful occurrence of the following steps in series:

1. The substantially perfect emulsification of the mineral oil by virtue of the surfactant molecules;

2. The production, through the medium of water, of a complex adsorbable surface-active agent having a comparatively high molecular weight and a comparatively low solubility in water;

3. The changes in the quantities and positions of the molecules of the agent;

4. The decomposition of micelles present in the emulsion;

5. The adsorption of the complex surfactant in the fabric;

and

6. The adsorption, or the chemical combination by afiinity,

of the micelles including oil particles in the complex surfactant produced.

As a whole, the most important matter of the present invention resides in the above-mentioned performance characteristics, that is, in that an adsorbent is activated in its neutral state, thereby to cause effective adsorption of the mineral oils, adsorptive substances and detergent substances in the fabric to be processed.

According to detailed observation of the adsorptive character of the oily agents according to the invention, it has been confirmed that adsorption occurs at a lower temperature and in a shorter period of time than the case of treatment of a fabric with conventional oily agents, and it adsorptive ability is very strong. This fact seems to be caused by the fact that the nonionic and cathionic surface-active agents prepare a complex substance, as mentioned already, thereby to strengthen adsorbency of the cathionic surface-active agent without presence of any acid.

It is also noteworthy that only a very small quantity of a detergent was needed for the thorough wash of the above processed fabric soiled by use. This fact is probably due not so much to the external action of the detergent used, as to the detergency established in the substances adsorbed in the fabric itself together with the oils.

It is to be well noted that one of the most characteristic features of the oily agent of the present invention resides in the activation (by means of an emulsifier) of adsorbents contained therein in neutral solutions, so that not only the oils, but the adsorbent and detergent ingredients, too, of the oily agent are wastelessly adsorbed in fabrics treated therein.

As a conclusion, the oily agents according to the invention have various advantages such that preparation of the oily agent is very simple because of being able to be prepared at a low temperature and in a comparatively short period of time without necessity of any acid treatment, adsorbency of the oily agent is strong and uniform; damage of the fabric treated with the oily agent is avoided because of using no acid-treatment; and detergency of the fabric treated with the oily agent becomes excellent and effectively sustained, owing to well adsorption of any detergent in said fabric.

We claim:

1. An oil composition for impregnation of cellulosic wipes, fabrics or mops at substantially neutral pH comprising a neutral aqueous blend of mineral oil with a first nonionic surface-active agent, a cationic surface-active agent and a second nonionic surface-active agent; wherein said first nonionic surface-active agent is the diethanolamide of coconut oil fatty acids; said second nonionic surface-active agent is polyoxyethylene alkylphenol ether and said cationic surface-active agent is the quaternary, stearyl dimethylbenzyl ammonium chloride.

2. The composition according to claim 1 wherein said second nonionic surface-active agent is present in an amount by weight substantially equal to the combined weights of said first nonionic surface-active agent and said cationic surfaceactive agent and is sufficient to substantially completely em ulsify said mineral oil in neutral aqueous solutions. 

2. The composition according to claim 1 wherein said second nonionic surface-active agent is present in an amount by weight substantially equal to the combined weights of said first nonionic surface-active agent and said cationic surface-active agent and is sufficient to substantially completely emulsify said mineral oil in neutral aqueous solutions. 